Legislation & Regulations

A compendium of articles about bills, laws and regulations that have an impact on workers, organized labour, unions and journalism.

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CWA Canada, IFJ urge Trudeau to make tech giants share ad revenue-CWA Canada and the world’s largest journalist organization are appealing directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make tech giants such as Facebook and Google share advertising revenues with news outlets in this country. Martin O’Hanlon, writing on the behalf of both the media union he leads and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), says in a letter sent today that the two companies “control over 80 per cent of Canada’s $6-billion online advertising market, yet they pay no taxes and they pay nothing for the content they use.” “For far too long, they have been earning money by linking to stories from Canadian news companies without compensation. It is simply not fair. They should be paying for copyrighted content.” What’s even more troubling, writes O’Hanlon, is the fact that “as these companies have raked in tens of billions of dollars over the years, thousands of Canadian media workers have been laid off and hundreds of Canadian publications have closed. It’s bad for journalism, bad for communities, and bad for our democracy.” “We call on your government to follow the lead of Australia and France, which are set to make digital companies pay for content use,” says the letter. The [...]

CBC union urges caution on reforms to broadcast rules-The main union at CBC/Radio-Canada is advising the federal government to proceed with caution as it considers recommendations for major regulatory reform of the broadcast and telecom sector issued by an independent panel on Wednesday. Among the sweeping changes the panel proposes are an end to advertising on a publicly funded CBC and that it be a leader in local, regional and national news. The Canadian Media Guild (CWA Canada Local 30213) said the report recognizes that the CBC is underfunded compared to public broadcasters in other countries and that its mandate is to provide programming in English, French and Indigenous languages across six time zones. The network receives $29 per capita in public funds while its counterparts in the U.K. and France get $105 and $73 respectively. “Like many Canadians, the union representing workers at CBC/Radio-Canada has long called for better funding,” said CMG President Carmel Smyth. “CBC is the largest news organization in the country, and it provides a crucial public service that Canadians appreciate for quality news and local programming. This is especially critical today when the internet is full of unverified fake news that divides us and damages healthy debate and our democratic tradition.” Kim Trynacity, [...]

Ontario post-secondary students leading charge against Ford’s funding cuts-NASR AHMED Thousands of angry college and university students took to the streets of Toronto on Jan. 25, standing shoulder to shoulder in Yonge-Dundas Square in the bitter cold. With them, they carried signs with slogans like Education is a Right and Fund our Future. Images would roll in on social media from the high-rise buildings above, showing a swarm of bodies marching through the streets and ending eventually on the lawn of Queen’s Park. The march against cuts to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) was one of the largest mobilizations of Ontario students in years, but this was just the beginning of the fightback that these students would mount in the face of a provincial conservative government determined to make sweeping changes to the funding of post-secondary education. Today, students from 13 colleges and universities will walk out of their classes at noon and continue to escalate their protest of the Ford government’s cuts to post-secondary education. Among them will be CWA Canada Associate Members, many of whom are students enrolled in journalism or other media programs. Cuts to OSAP and the so-called “Student Choice Initiative” The set of reforms to post-secondary education funding announced in January includes [...]

Media union welcomes federal aid for news industry, cautions about possible loophole-OTTAWA — CWA Canada, the country’s only all-media union, welcomes the measures in today’s federal budget to help the news industry, but worries a possible loophole could let a company like Postmedia funnel millions to its vulture fund debt-holders and to executives. The budget includes $595 million in tax credits and other incentives over five years, and allows non-profit media organizations to effectively be eligible for charitable status. CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon applauded the funding, saying it should go a long way to helping local news outlets survive and even thrive. But he added that the union can’t fully endorse the package until further details are provided. “We need to know there will be rules to ensure that a company like Postmedia can’t simply take millions of dollars in labour tax credits and pass that on to the debt-holders who control it or to pay huge executive salaries or bonuses,” O’Hanlon said. “The money must go toward improving journalism.” In a shocking and shameless move, Postmedia boosted CEO Paul Godfrey’s compensation package to a whopping $5 million last year, while laying off workers and pleading for a government bailout. The company has also been paying tens of millions of [...]

CWA Canada

Communications Workers
of America / CANADA

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The Media Union

We are Canada's oldest media union with roots going back to the 1800s. We represent workers in the communications industry, from news services to print, digital, radio, television and mailing operations. Our employers include the CBC, The Canadian Press, VICE Media and major newspapers from coast to coast.